Woman held for ten months in Immigration Fiasco

Chronogical Blog Entries:

Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:24:53 +1100

The story of a woman detained in an Immigration Detention centre has
broken this morning. I read the article in this morning's "Age", with
increasing amazement ...

Apparently Cornelia Rau absconded from the psychiatric unit of Manly
Hospital, where she was undergoing treatment. And after being questioned by
police for unusual or "suspicious" behaviour was handed over to Immigration
Authorities and held in Baxter Detention Centre.

She has since been placed back in psychiatric care.

If last century someone had told me that an Australian citizen could be
held for ten months without due process in her own country, I would not have
believed it ...

Later on the radio, I heard that the minister for Immigration had defended
her department's handling of the case:

Ms Vanstone says that Ms Rau received medical care during her
detention, including psychiatric evaluations that showed she was not
suffering a mental illness.

Umm, minister ... let's just note down the facts in this case:

A woman is diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and treated in a
psychiatric unit.

She absconds from the psychiatric care and is eventually locked up
with no due process.

But (according to the minister) she nevertheless receives "medical
care", including evaluation for psychiatric illness. And according to
these evaluations is not suffering any mental illness.
(my emphasis).

After her sister springs her from the Baxter Concentration camp she
is placed back into psychiatric care.

Sorry, but something does not compute here ... Can anyone else spot
the obvious error in the above sequential statements?

If the mainstream media is as gutless as usual, I suppose this story
will just fade away ... but it shouldn't